Brodie's Story

Addiction is a story I know all to well. It robs you of everything, your dreams, desires, and goals. Your friends and family take a backseat to the one driving force, staying high. Each time I’d get high, I’d hold the guilt, pain, shame and suffering for one more day.

For a long time, I knew I had a problem with drugs and alcohol, but I really thought I had it under control. I spent the better part of the last 15 years trapped in a literal waking nightmare hooked on drugs and a slave to my addiction. “If I really wanted to, I could stop,” is what I told myself. Occasionally, I’d refrain for a day or two, just to prove to myself that I could. I’d convince myself that it wasn’t hurting anyone else, right? So, what was the big deal?

I spent the better part of the last 15 years trapped in a literal waking nightmare hooked on drugs and a slave to my addiction. The reality of addiction is that is doesn’t just hurt the addict. In my own experience I left a path of wreckage on many lives. The reality was that I was completely powerless over drugs and alcohol, and I had been for many years.

I had come to a point where I knew I couldn’t keep going like this, but I also didn’t know how to stop. I was full of fear, guilt, shame and remorse. The bottom kept getting lower. Things I told myself I’d never do were becoming things I’d do every day.

There wasn’t a price I wouldn’t pay for the next high — including my own life.

Eight days after my 28th birthday, I made a call that saved my life. I had finally conceded to my innermost self that I was an addict. This was the first step in my recovery journey.  The start toward a new life, a life of love and service. From the outside looking in, this probably looked like the lowest point in my life, but to me the nightmare was finally over. I was in detox two days later and within a week I was at Simon House.

When I first arrived at Simon House, they asked me: what was I willing to do for my recovery? “Anything that was asked of me,” I had responded, and I meant it. I didn’t want to be in and out of treatment for the rest of my life. I committed to completing the program.

Upon leaving, one of the first things I did was find myself a sponsor, a home group, and started working with the 12 steps of AA.  On day one with my sponsor, he told me that his only requirement was that when we completed the program, I would start sponsoring others and help bring them through the steps like he did for me.

For the last 6 months, I’ve served as President of the Simon House Alumni. It has been incredibly rewarding work, watching men like me come into the house broken, at their lowest point, and then begin to slowly rebuild their lives.

Today, thanks to the staff at Simon House, my sponsor, my amazing friends, supportive family, and the program of AA I haven’t had to take a drink or drug in over 2 years!

— Brodie